Feb. 17 (Bloomberg) -- The Reserve Bank of Australia is
seeking to sell a 920-square-meter (9,902-square-foot)
residential property in a harbor-side suburb of Sydney amid the
highest home prices the city has ever seen.

The central bank has listed for sale the six-bedroom
Eversley mansion near the northern end of the Sydney Harbour
Bridge through broker Ray White Group, according to a listing on
the realestate.com.au website. No price guide was given for the
property in Kirribilli, a suburb four kilometers (2.5 miles)
north of the city center, where the median house price was
A$2.35 million ($2.13 million), according to the website.

The RBA is putting the house up for sale after its record-low 2.5 percent benchmark interest rate helped drive a 13.4
percent gain in Sydney dwelling prices in the 12 months to Jan.
31. While home prices are at a record, the country’s jobless
rate is at a decade-high 6 percent, shrinking the likelihood of
a rate increase that could arrest further price surges.

“It’s a seller’s market quite clearly: there are plenty of
buyers out there, not many listings, and prices are rising, so
it’s not a bad time to sell,” said Louis Christopher, managing
director of Sydney-based real estate data provider SQM Research
Pty. “It’s a little bit perplexing as to why the RBA was
holding residential property.”

Prime Location

Rachael Wright, marketing agent at Ray White, declined to
comment on the listing, which shows the house, at 10 Carabella
Street, has been split into two apartments. Colleague Kingsley
Yates didn’t immediately respond to a voice-mail message seeking
comment. The RBA declined to comment on the sale. State
government filings show the RBA owns both apartments.

Kirribilli, which is also the location of Sydney residences
for the Prime Minister and the Governor General, is surrounded
by water on three sides, with views of the city’s Opera House
and Harbour Bridge.

The RBA bought 8 and 10 Carabella Street in 1986, and
combined them with a neighboring property that it already owned
as part of a new staff training college, according to a city
council document. The bank’s H.C. Coombs Centre for Financial
Studies is still located at the adjoining property at 122A
Kirribilli Avenue, according to its website.

The value of the RBA’s property, plant and equipment assets
was A$491 million as of June 30, up from A$448 million a year
earlier, the bank’s financial statements for the 2013 fiscal
year show.

The tenants of one of the apartments at Eversley gave
notice of their plans to vacate in mid-2013, according to
documents released in December under a Freedom of Information
request.